THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[06:00:10] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was an unprecedented cyber-attack, order by senior Russian leadership on the U.S. election. Trump repeatedly praised Russia during his campaign. He's continued to express doubts, even now, that he has access to top U.S. intelligence as the president- elect. Telling "Time" magazine this week, "I don't believe they interfered." That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two of Trump's most high profile and loyal supporters, Chris Christie and Rudy Giuiliani, are no longer in running for jobs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perhaps the most significant development here, something that many people have been waiting for, that confession video of Dylan Roof.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm back. Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you. Let's start with new overnight. President-elect Donald Trump offering up a stunning rejection of U.S. intelligence following new reports from the CIA that Russia meddled in the election to help Trump win.

PAUL: This comes after President Obama orders a full review of any Russian election-related hacking. Overnight, Trump's transition team is offering the sharp pushback to claims of Russian espionage in the election.

BLACKWELL: Trump's team saying in part regarding the U.S.-intel community, quote, "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction." This is threatening to spark an early feud between America's top spy agencies and the president- elect's White House.

This morning, we're getting new reaction from Moscow. They're also dismissing these reports. We'll get to that in just a moment. But let's bring in now CNN politics reporters, Eugene Scott and Tom Lobianco. Good morning to both of you.

Eugene, I'm going to start with you. The strategy behind this statement, just three sentences, unsigned. What -- what is the explanation -- the calculation here from the Trump folks?

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, it's a continuation of Donald Trump's message during the campaign that he believes he knows more than the intelligence community. But that's a hard sell to make at this point, given that we know he only is getting about once a week president daily briefs that would give him more information about national security globally.

It's also harmful because that statement is inaccurate. These are not the same people who were heading these departments when the Bush administration was in place. This is new information and new revelations about what is happening abroad.

BLACKWELL: So Tom, the introduction here, I talked about the possibility that this would start a feud between the intelligence community and the incoming Trump White House. These are the career folks because the people who were in the Bush administration and the lead up to the war in Iraq, those leaders are gone. Could there be some real life and death important consequence to this what looks to be the beginning of a feud?

TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Sure. Well, you know, it's up to the president to decide, you know, who he wants to listen to among his advisers, among the executive branch. You know, what's fascinating about this is that we're talking about Russia meddling -- the former Soviet Union.

By all accounts, Putin, a former KGB agent, right, involved here, all right, in our election. This is absolutely shocking. What Trump decides to do with it is up to him, but by all accounts, there's been some level of impact here.

You know, as Eugene pointed out, this is not the same people who made the assessments in Iraq on weapons of mass destruction. But, again, it's up to the president to decide who he wants to listen to and, as Truman used to say, the buck stops at his desk.

BLACKWELL: Eugene, this continues a theme that we have seen, not just from Donald Trump since the launch of his campaign. During the transition, suggesting that he would have won, or actually won the popular vote except for those millions of people who voted illegally, offering no evidence.

He again, here is saying that Russia is not involved, but offers no evidence. So are hearing -- have we heard anything from the Trump transition team since this statement came out offering some evidence to refute what we have heard from more than a dozen federal agencies? SCOTT: We have not. But ironically, we actually do have more evidence from the intelligence community backing up what they believe to be hacking from people associated with the Russian government. There is some people they believed connected to them that directly delivered e-mails to Wikileaks. We don't have anything comparable to that from the Trump campaign letting us know that what Donald Trump believes to be the case is actually what happened.

BLACKWELL: All right, and let me come back to you, Tom, with what we're hearing from Michael Hayden.

[06:05:03]Do we have that? The ex-CIA boss on Trump, "To have the president-elect of the United States simply reject the fact-based narrative that the intelligence community puts together because it conflicts with his a priority assumptions, wow. The data matters. He continues to reject the Russians did it and claims it was politicized intelligence."

Let's talk about those last two words, Tom, politicized intelligence and what you take away from what we are seeing from Donald Trump that he believes that there was some political angle to any claim that Russia was involved.

LOBIANCO: Sure. Well, I mean, you know, you have to remember where Trump is right now. Anything that looks back on in the election is not really good for him. You know, to the strife between the intelligence community -- you know, particularly a lot of top former Republican brass coming out Homeland Security, National Security, intelligence areas that had gotten on board with the Clinton campaign, there's probably still some sore feelings there, without a doubt.

But the other thing that's going on here is that anything that looks back on the election, and calls into question the results, the legitimacy of the results, what had an impact, the Trump campaign says that this is was the nation rising up. A massive shift in, you know, priorities on the ground.

All right. That's what the story they want to tell. Anything that goes against that is bad for them. Anything that says that, you know, a foreign nation was interfering and helped get him elected, it sounds terrible for him.

BLACKWELL: Yes, this comes on the same day that President Obama orders a fuel review of Russia's involvement or interference in the election. We'll see if that goes anywhere, suggest what we heard from the Trump campaign. That even if something is found more than what we've heard already that may be where it ends. So Eugene Scott, Tom Lobianco, thanks both.

PAUL: We're getting reaction from the kremlin this morning as well. Jill Dougherty, former CNN Moscow bureau chief joining us now live from Moscow. Jill, always good to see you. I understand you received a text there the kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Petkov. What did he say?

JILL DOUGHERTY, FORMER CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Essentially, he's saying what the Russians have been saying all along during the story, which is prove it. Dmitri Petkov said these are not new conclusions and again it seems like naked blaming. You have no evidence to be based on.

Also he said it looks it might be an attempt to influence the president-elect with -- by imposing a certain negative image of our country. And then also the spokesperson for the foreign minister said basically the same thing.

We the Russians have asked for some details from the Americans that they won't provide. Again, where is the evidence? But the difficulty here, as a lot of people know, is that the United States really would have grave difficulty in saying precisely how it got this information.

Because then it would reveal sources and methods and ways that the United States has of getting information about Russia in a lot of different ways and they don't want to reveal that. So the Russians are very aware of that.

They -- everyone kind of does the same thing on some level. They know that the Americans can't give this data completely. So that's Obama's dilemma right now. He's saying collect all the information. I want it by the time the inauguration, before the inauguration.

But, will they reveal all of it? They may not be able to reveal all of it. So this could continue to roil and go along as it's been going.

PAUL: You know, we look at the Russian response, the latest Russian response from Dimitri Petkov. He says that there are not any new conclusions. That there is no evidence. It seems like a deflection asserting that the U.S. administration, the current administration or perhaps the intel, current intel officials are attempting to taint Donald Trump's view of Russia. Has anyone from Russia come out and said, we did not do this? Has that verbiage been used?

DOUGHERTY: Well, the government has said, we are not doing this. They had President Putin essentially has said that. So yes, you know, right from the beginning, they're saying, we didn't do this. Then the next thing is, and prove, if you have some information, give it to us.

But I think that, you know, what's happening here is, and the phrase has been used, you know, this is a new threshold and people don't really know how this could all turn out. Say the United States really decides that it wants to retaliate.

And it has said, Vice President Biden has said, we will do something in our own time. But, what do you do? Do you take some type of action that could really send a message? You know, by taking down electric systems or something or do you out the people responsible?

[06:10:08]These -- it's a very serious decision by the president, whoever that will be, to take some response.

PAUL: Serious and delicate. No doubt about it. You answered my next question. Jill Dougherty, appreciate it so much. Thank you. BLACKWELL: All right, let's turn now toward the federal government still running this morning. A shutdown was avoided last night when a budget bill narrowly passed through the Senate. Democratic senators have been planning to block this bill unless it provided an extension of health benefits for retired coal miners. But Democrats conceded after they failed to secure enough votes.

An eerie confession from the charged mass shooter who targeted a South Carolina church. Dylann Roof laughing, while telling the FBI, I did it. The bizarre confession tape and why he says somebody had to do it. That's next.

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PAUL: It's 14 minutes past the hour. The words eerie, bizarre, evil, those are just some of the words used to describe the disturbing confession of accused gunman, Dylann Roof.

BLACKWELL: This alleged mass gunman wasted no time admitting to slaughtering a group of worshippers. So now he's confessed to the killings at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

You remember it. Surveillance video from June 2015 captured Roof walking into bible study with a gun on his waist slowly leaving. We want to warn you that some of what you're about to hear from Dylann Roof in this initial FBI interview is absolutely disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:15:00]DYLANN ROOF: I went to that church in Charleston and -- I did it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did what?

ROOF: Well, I had to do it because somebody had to do something. Because you know, black people are killing white people every day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you're deal, is it like --

ROOF: To agitate race relations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To make it worse.

ROOF: Right. It doesn't mean you have to kill black people. Just, you know, just make things better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But in your mind, making things better, right, because you said in the very beginning, going back to segregation, white people are -- white people would need to be running the country, right?

ROOF: Yes, sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. I mean, like no more black presidents. No more black politicians, right? ROOF: Right. No more black president, sure. We don't need a black president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Roof admitted in that video that he drank a little just before visiting the church. He sat with his victims during bible study for about 15 minutes before that slaughter. He fired 70 rounds. A dozen people, here are their faces, they had their eyes closed as they stood for prayers. Nine of them were killed.

PAUL: Roof faces 33 federal charges, including hate crimes. If convicted, he could face the death penalty here. Let's bring in Bakari Sellers, CNN commentator and former South Carolina House member. Bakari, thank you so much for being with us. Your first reaction, I want to get from you first of all, to this confession that we are hearing.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN COMMENTATOR: Well, it's -- difficult. It's sad. We knew that Dylann Roof was disturbed. But when you hear his words, when you hear the words that come out of his mouth, it -- it's even more troublesome. You try to identify or figure out why someone that young has the hate in his heart of George Wallace.

And then you hear how he identified with white nationalism, you look at some of the platforms that individuals are giving today. Some of the messages that are coming out of people's mouths today, you realize the Dylann Roof's not alone. That's probably the scariest thing.

PAUL: I want to play another bit of sound here. He was talking about sitting with these people for about 15 minutes and what he was thinking about in that period of time. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROOF: I was sitting there and I was just like thinking about whether I should do it or not. That's why I was sitting there for 15 minutes. Just like, oh, you know, because I know I couldn't have just walked out. They didn't say anything to me about the thing on my belt. I wouldn't say spur of the moment, but I just finally decided I had to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: From a legal perspective, Bakari, does that prove -- or does that establish premeditation?

SELLERS: Well, you know, this isn't a case about who done it. This is one of the more difficult questions that many people in America are going to have to grasp with, including myself, which is whether or not someone believes in the death penalty, if, in fact, you do believe in the death penalty, this is the case that fits that.

You know, Dylann's never shied away from whether or not he did it, from the malice in his heart, from the fact that this was a hate crime. And so this is -- you know, even more difficult because you're dealing with a callous individual who killed nine people. You had three survivors.

And so, this is not -- we don't have to worry about a slageler-type verdict and I'm referring to the Walter Scott shooting. In this case, this is simply a matter of whether or not Dylann Roof dies for his crimes or not.

PAUL: He's representing himself. What does that tell you about his mind set and how involved will defense attorneys be?

SELLERS: Well, the defense attorneys are very involved. Dylann Roof has some of the pre-eminent death penalty lawyers in the entire country at his side. This will be tied up, unfortunately, for, you know, years and years and years on appeal.

However, I will tell you that one of the more difficult things that many of us in South Carolina are having to deal with is the simple fact that Dylann Roof gets to use this platform for the next week or two to talk about his views, first.

And second, he's interviewing or examining or bringing to the witness stand many of the same people who were in the room the night that he committed the slaughter. I think he's in for a rude awake awakening because, you know, Felicia Sanders, Poly Sheppard, two women I know, they're very strong.

[06:20:04]They were in the room that night and they survived. I think that Dylann Roof is going to have a rude awakening when he attempts to cross these individuals and talk about the hate that's in his heart.

Let me just say that the women in this -- the survivors and the families in this case, probably some of the strongest individuals that we have ever seen. And, they're the reason that Charleston hasn't fallen apart and that I have strength every single day when you're faced with this type of hate.

PAUL: Well, Bakari Sellers, thank you for your insight and reminding us about the strength of the victims. You're right on so many levels here. It is, at the end of the day, because he's not disputed anything, really. It's about keeping him off death row. We'll have to see if that happens. Bakari Sellers, thank you so much.

SELLERS: Thank you

BLACKWELL: All right, let's take a turn and take you to Baltimore now for the annual Army-Navy game. Coy Wire can't wait. He's got a -- I think it's a questionable decision, but to keep his head warm, 30 degrees there in Baltimore.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Victor, you know us hairless men need to keep our heads warm especially it's 20s outside. Coming up, we are going to talk about the Army-Navy game. We'll hear from one of the greatest Navy players of all time and see one of the coolest traditions of the many here at the Army-Navy game from Baltimore, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLACKWELL: OK, so we know that traveling can be stressful especially this time of year, but with smartphones, relief may be in the palm of your hand. We caught up with a couple of travelers to hear which apps they use to stay organized on the go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NADINE SYKORA, SAVVY TRAVELER: One of the issues that I find when traveling with a group or work colleagues is finances and money and who owes what? So I use the app "Split Wise," which is a money splitting app. It allows me to keep track of all the different expenses and categorize them.

It allows us to break up each bill by percentage or amount owed. It allows multiple currencies and you get a downloadable Excel spread sheet at the end. Now when I travel, I have no issues dealing with finances or who owes what because it's all taken care of with Split Wise.

PETER PARKORR, SAVVY TRAVELER: One way I like to stay organized is I use an app called "Trip It Pro." "Trip It" is an app that will synch with your inbox. It will import all your travel information and itineraries.

[06:25:02]It stores everything offline. I just click into the app and everything I need to know is right there. I don't worry about documents, looking for e-mails.

Everything I need is in one easy place. It also gives me the latest, up-to-date travel information. So I know if flights are canceled, delayed. If my train times have changed and things like that. It's super useful.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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PAUL: So we're a week away from the first day of winter.

BLACKWELL: By the calendar.

PAUL: Step outside.

BLACKWELL: Only on the calendar. Yes, freezing temperatures are taking the U.S. by storm. Great writing there, has nearly 10 million people throughout the west brace for a winter storm. There are warnings and watches that are going into next week.

CNN meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, following this cold front. Allison, I just came back from a country where it's summer and I had packed my coats and jackets. I came back in shorts and received a rude awakening even here in Georgia.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That would not work for you today. Mother Nature did not get the memo that winter doesn't actually start for another week because she's a week early. We start in the west, which is where the system is going to begin and it's going to gradually make its way towards the east.

We have millions under some type of winter watch or advisory for today through Monday. The system begins to shift east into the Midwest later this afternoon and tonight, and that's going to post some problems for some folks in the Midwest.

Remember, earlier this week, in states like Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, we had multicar pileups, some of which were deadly. We could be going through the exact same scenario again today and tomorrow because this is actually a much more potent system than the one that we had a few days ago. So that will likely have at least a few issues.

Now, in terms of the total amounts, some of these areas could be looking at pretty impressive snowfall accumulations. In portions of the Midwest, we are looking at 8 inches to 12 inches and then along the Great Lakes, we could be looking at as much as 20 inches of rain.

Now one of the other things to keep in mind of is all the football games that will be taking place starting tomorrow. One of those is the Browns game, now this may end up being one of the snowiest games in Cleveland history.

The previous record was 3.7 inches. We're forecasting five inches for tomorrow. So again, the good news is Ohio fans are used to it. They're playing the Bengals again. Hopefully that should at least help a little bit.

But we've also been talking the cold temperatures as well. We have the big dip of air that's going to start today. Notice the pinks and the white region coming down into portions of the Midwest. Look at the blue coming down to cities like Atlanta and Nashville.

Retreats a little Monday and Tuesday, but then notice how much further south that cold air comes next week. That's right. Victor and Christi, we are actually going to get an even colder blast of air. Maybe even doubling some of the temperatures in terms of below average by the time we get to Wednesday of the upcoming week.

BLACKWELL: We're feeling the blue.

CHINCHAR: Yes.

PAUL: It's Christmas.

BLACKWELL: Well, Georgia?

PAUL: Thank you, Allison.

Donald Trump already backing away from one of his campaign promises. Take a listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: That plays great before the election. Now, we don't care. (END VIDEO CLIP)

And President-elect Trump is waking up in New York and will be heading to the Army-Navy game in Baltimore in a few hours. While there he will be meeting with CIA director designate Mike Pompeo.

Now all this a day after he dismissed the findings of the intelligence community that the Russian government was behind cyber attacks during the presidential election specifically to help Donald Trump win.

PAUL: Want to read to you straight from the statement here. It says, quote, "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. It's now time to move on and make America great again," unquote.

And his statement came after President Obama ordered a full review into cyber attacks by Russia to influence U.S. elections. This is going all the way back to 2008. And the president wants it done before he leaves office in January.

We should point out Russia insist there is, quote, "no evidence of hacking."

BLACKWELL: All right. We still got a couple of weeks until inauguration day but Donald Trump is seemingly already going back on one of his campaign promises. You'll remember he promised to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton for using a private e-mail server. It happened during one of the debates. But listen to what he said at one of his thank you rallies just last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Lock her up. Lock her up.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT: That plays great before the election. Now we don't care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Yes. We couldn't really decipher that. There were chants of lock her up from the audience. He said, now we don't care. That was before the election. But he is now talking about this so-called war on Christmas and claims that people have stopped saying :Merry Christmas." Watch this.

[06:35:10] That's right. They reminded me. We're going to start saying Merry Christmas again. How about all those department stores? They have the bells and they have the red walls and they have the snow. But they don't have Merry Christmas. I think they're going to start putting up Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas.

Tom, Trump said that he doesn't feel very strongly about prosecuting Clinton anymore. He said, no, we don't care about that now. But apparently the people at least in that audience and the audience in previous thank you rallies, they still care.

TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Absolutely. I mean this is -- you put maybe three or four things out there that defined his campaign. Right? And that's right up there with building the wall. Right? I mean, that's one of those things where you kind of can't go back on it. So, you know, the thing that I'm watching for at least is how will crowds start to react when they realize that, OK, this is not on the table anymore. This really isn't?

You know, there's sort of a dynamic that we're still getting used to as political reporters, which is the words aren't always as literal in his -- when he's using them. But the -- in the crowds and his supporters, they don't take them literally, they take him seriously. Right? So what will happen when it becomes serious to them that he's not going to go after her? It think that remains to be seen.

BLACKWELL: So, Eugene, is there, that we've seen thus far, any evidence that there will be any consequence for Donald Trump pulling away from that promise he made during one of those debates and he will appoint a special prosecutor?

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, if you saw some of the crowd's reaction, they just laughed as he said, oh, that played well during the campaign, but not so much right now. I think many of his supporters, especially the base, are just glad that he won. I don't know that this was one of the things they wanted to see followed through. Most I think they certainly would have liked to have seen Hillary Clinton have to face more prosecution or even persecution for her activity. But I think this is something that they will be able to let go if he holds tight to many of the other promises that he's made. And it seems like there's a chance that he may not do that.

BLACKWELL: Tom, let me come to you with the reporting from "The New York Times" about who will be the next secretary of State. They're reporting that at the top of the Trump transition team's list is Rex Tillerson, the president and CEO of ExxonMobil.

I want to play for you what Tillerson said about his role as a businessman and not representing the U.S. government. Let's watch this. This is from the University of Texas just a couple of months ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REX TILLERSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, EXXONMOBIL: Host governments, resource owners, and whether it's Russia or Yemen or, you know, wherever, Middle East, make sure they understand that I'm not the U.S. government. I am an American company and I will be bound by the laws of the United States and other countries. And I'm going to follow those laws. But I'm not here to represent the United States government's interests. I'm not here to defend it nor am I here to criticize it. That's not what I do. I'm a businessman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now if he goes back to these countries as the top diplomat for the U.S., as the secretary of State, there will be some obvious complications, some difficulties now making that turn from businessman to the voice of the president as we're seeing with Donald Trump.

LOBIANCO: Sure. You know, traditionally, secretary of State, top diplomats, the type of job where, by definition, you've been constrained. Right? You're constrained by all these international dynamics at play. I mean, look, you know, just look back just a week ago to the call of the Taiwanese president. You know, the fallout from that. So these are the kinds of things where, yes, you're kind of locked in.

Then again, that's tradition. I mean, who is to say that that will continue to be the case with Trump? I do think, however, if you don't -- if you don't play by that book, you're likely to face more problems like the fallout with China from this call with Taiwan -- the Taiwanese president. So that's the kind of thing you've got to watch out for.

You know, obviously, the Exxon CEO is incredibly sharp. He knows what he's doing. But, you know, he's not coming out of that world. He's not coming out of foggy bottom as they say around here.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Let me come back to you, Eugene, with one of the names that's now off the list for secretary of State and that's former New York mayor and passionate Trump supporter Rudy Giuliani.

[06:40:08] Let's go back just a couple of weeks ago. It seems like it's been much longer than that. But this is what he said when there was discussion about some of those names being in the hat for secretary of State.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The "Wall Street Journal" reported this afternoon that the choice for secretary of State in a Trump administration is down to Rudolph Giuliani and John Bolton. We don't have John Bolton here tonight. So I'm going to ask you some questions about --

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: John would be a very good choice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there anybody better?

GIULIANI: Maybe me. I don't know.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: A lot of confidence there from the former mayor. Now he's off the list. He says that at least the campaign said he removed himself from consideration. Is that the full story?

SCOTT: Not according to our reporting. He probably still does think that he's the better option. It's just probably not something that the campaign agrees with him on. We have reporting that says that he was told previously before the announcement came out that he would not be selected.

Look, the thing is, this is not as big of a deal as some people perhaps think it is. You can still be a very informal adviser and be very effective and have the ear of the top leader without being in the Cabinet. But I certainly do believe that there is a bit of disappointment because this is the position that he wanted. But I don't think that we will see a huge departure between Giuliani and Trump. I believe they're going to the Army-Navy game today together anyway.

BLACKWELL: All right. The producers are keeping us on time. So they're giving me the wrap. But I want to get into why a little later in the show.

Eugene, Tom, thank you both.

SCOTT: Bye.

BLACKWELL: All right.

PAUL: Well, it is called the greatest rivalry in sports. Army versus Navy. Guess who got a good ticket to that? Coy Wire.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Christi, Victor. 1890 is when this storied rivalry began. And there have been 10 presidents to come see this game. And the game is awesome. But wait until you hear about some of the traditions and antics leading up to the game. We caught up with some of the folks who ran the game ball all the way here to Baltimore. Wait until you hear how long that was. We'll talk to them coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:51] PAUL: You know it's one of the oldest, most heated rivalries in college football. Army and Navy meeting on the gridiron for the 117th time this afternoon.

BLACKWELL: Coy Wire is in Baltimore with all of the pomp and circumstance. And the tradition around this big game.

PAUL: He lost his hat.

BLACKWELL: He got rid of the hat. He got rid of the hat. Hey, Coy.

WIRE: You made me second-guess myself. You said it was a questionable decision.

PAUL: No.

WIRE: You're a fashionable guy, Victor, so I head your word. Listen, to quote the 34th president of the United States, and commander of the Army, Dwight Eisenhower, he said the Army and the Navy are the best of friends 364 1/2 days of the year. But on this one Saturday afternoon, they are the worst of enemies.

We caught up with one of the greatest Navy players of all time, Keenan Reynolds, who is now a member of the Baltimore Ravens, and we asked him his thoughts on this historic rivalry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEENAN REYNOLDS, NAVY QUARTERBACK 2012-15: The Army-Navy game in many opinions is the biggest and best rivalry in all of sports, really. What it means to both sides. It's the biggest thing that you learn as a pleb walking into the Naval Academy is to beat Army. Being able to be on it four years was kind of like the high note of my career at the Naval Academy. Nothing feels better than running on that field with my teammates and being able to celebrate after the game. My prediction of the game is very obvious. It's going to be Navy in a rout. Beat Army.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Well, hey, hey, hey, Victor, look what I found. I found myself a nice, cozy hat. I'm warm now. One of the things that warms up this rivalry are the traditions and one of those is the running of the game ball.

Check this out. Yesterday, the 13th Company of midshipmen, they ran the game ball 88 miles from Annapolis, at the Naval Academy, through Washington, D.C., all the way here last night to Baltimore to deliver the ball they will use in the game. Just one of the coolest parts of the many traditions in this rivalry.

This is an opportunity today, guys, to watch the men who salute us but now we can salute them. It's the only college football game on in the country. The game is at 3:00. Donald Trump will be here. President- elect Donald Trump will be here. Splitting sidelines. Half for Navy, half for Army so as not to choose a side. It's going to be a lot of fun. Can't wait to share more with you throughout the morning.

PAUL: Looking forward to it. All right. Coy, you look great in the hat.

BLACKWELL: I should have more compassion. Bald man to bald man.

PAUL: Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right.

PAUL: We'll be right back.

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[06:52:46] PAUL: Donald Trump's wife Melania says she will not be moving to Washington initially. Sources say Trump's daughter Ivanka, however, is planning to move to the capital, which leads to a question, writes Kate Anderson Brower, on CNN.com, quote, "Who exactly is going to be the first lady come noon January 20th? The answer, I think, is no one. Melania may prefer, it seems, to remain in New York with son Barron but that doesn't make Ivanka the de facto first lady. It makes for someone potentially much more publicly powerful."

Kate Andersen Brower with us now and joining us live from Washington.

Kate, good to see you. So give us your first take on when you heard Melania was not coming to Washington immediately. Is that really that uncommon, especially for a mom with a child?

KATE ANDERSEN BROWER, AUTHOR, "FIRST WOMEN": It is. I mean, certainly in modern times. We haven't had a first lady do that. I mean, Jackie Kennedy was not particularly excited about moving to Washington and uprooting her family. But she did it. And she left to go to Virginia as often as she could to ride her horses in Milberg. So, you know, and Bess Truman was not a big fan of being in Washington.

We've had a long history of first ladies who haven't really enjoyed the job or who have been kind of commuting back and forth in their homes to the White House. But to make this decision to not come down for several months and maybe we're not sure at all if she will, but I think it's likely she will eventually, I think it shows her commitment to their son. It's a very personal decision.

I think it's interesting to look at Ivanka Trump's role because, you know, she is not going to be the de facto first lady. I think she is going to be something like we have never seen before. Just like this president is something we've never seen before. And to me, that's fascinating.

PAUL: Well, you also write, "When former vice president Al Gore emerged from his meeting with President-elect Donald Trump he made sure to tell reporters that he met with Ivanka Trump first, but spent the bulk of the time with her father."

What do you make of that?

BROWER: Well --

PAUL: That need to say, I spent my time with Ivanka?

BROWER: I think that for someone like Al Gore, who was vice president, and who was almost president himself, he doesn't what it to look as though he just met with the president-elect's daughter. You know, he wanted to be clear that he met with the president also. The fact that she's facilitating these meetings I think says a lot about her power. She is obviously, you know, she's house-hunting with Jared Kushner and I've talked to friends of the Trump who said that there is nobody more trusted in that circle than Jared Kushner.

[06:55:05] And obviously Ivanka and her two brothers are influential policy advisers to their father. And in December 15th when he does this press conference, I think we'll see exactly what he intends to do separating his business from politics.

I mean, this is unchartered territory for us so -- but we have had first ladies who have not been the spouse of the president. In fact, the first time the term first lady came up was in the mid 19th century. And it was James Buchanan's niece, Harriet Lane, who was the first lady of the land, she was called. So she was not married to the president. She was his niece.

So we have had women serve that role, who have not been the president's wife. I just don't think it's going to be Ivanka Trump.

PAUL: All right. Kate Andersen Brower, we appreciate it so much. Good to see you.

BROWER: Thank you.

PAUL: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: And the next hour of your NEW DAY is coming up after a short break. Stay with us.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It was an unprecedented cyber attack ordered by senior Russian leadership on the U.S. election. Trump repeatedly praised Russia during his campaign.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two of Trump's most high profile and loyal supporters, Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani, are no longer in the running for jobs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll have to see a most significant development here, something that many people have been waiting for, that confession video of Dylann Roof.

DYLANN ROOF, CHARLESTON CHURCH SHOOTER: I went to that church in Charleston. I did it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Certainly a lot to unpack with you this morning. Welcome to Saturday. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.

PAUL: Yes, also ahead, we should point out this hour, one of the oldest most revered rivalries in college football kicks off this afternoon and guess who's there? One Mr. Coy Wire.